chrl42 wrote:I do know Mao was tea drinker and loved drinking Longjing everyday and ate the leaf left-overs (Hunan custom)..but it doesn't mean he did all that help to a tea culture as a tea drinker. Most notoriously, they cut down those old trees in Yunnan...'specially Yiwu where was the most famous Puerh area once..invented Shu and started mass-producing Bings. Mass-produced those commercial pots using scarce Huanglongshan clay...which ended in clay depletion to this day..!

Above all, I want Mao's da hong pao plucked from those original bushes.

Chrl, do you by any chance know how he prepared his tea? also using Huanglongshan yixing teapot or something else? Just curious why there's specific instruction to mass produce teaware from scarce clay.

Maybe Gaiwan? I've never heard he used a Yixing...

Factory-1 was founded in communistic idea..they thought expensive Yixing wares should go to every person in cheap price. So they made many moulds...produced in mass quantity using moulds for the first time in Yixing history (was Wang Yin-chun's idea and Gu Jing-zhou opposed that idea very badly). Mould-using can fasten the time of making pots +10 times than hand-making...the quantity enlarged therefore.

Beginning time of Factory-1 (5~60s)..way of using moulds was not completely set up. They were like hand-made/mould-using. By 70s they were just fully backed up by moulds..the quantity enlarged..touched by hands reduced...etc there are reasons why they keep saying older the better...IMHO

Something to keep in mind for pots from this period is that the clay was pure whether they used a mold or handmade. So, for drinking, these pots are still way better than the modern pots where clay is mixed and adulterated but the workmanship is very good. (not saying all modern pots use adulterated clay).

Those production pots of 70s-90s found in these areas are still affordable at a few hundred dollars. It is much better than paying a hundred or two for questionable clay of the new pots. They are getting rare, it is late, but still not too late to find them. I just found and bought 2 dozens of 1 st and 2nd factory 70/80s pots yesterday. They are still in the original box.

Teaism wrote:Those production pots of 70s-90s found in these areas are still affordable at a few hundred dollars. It is much better than paying a hundred or two for questionable clay of the new pots. They are getting rare, it is late, but still not too late to find them. I just found and bought 2 dozens of 1 st and 2nd factory 70/80s pots yesterday. They are still in the original box.

Teaism wrote:Those production pots of 70s-90s found in these areas are still affordable at a few hundred dollars. It is much better than paying a hundred or two for questionable clay of the new pots. They are getting rare, it is late, but still not too late to find them. I just found and bought 2 dozens of 1 st and 2nd factory 70/80s pots yesterday. They are still in the original box.

Okie okie... I will post some picture another time. I have shrink wrapped all the pots, labelled and pack them in the boxes already. I am quite religious about organizing, packing, labeling and storing them properly, including the tea too.

I am located in South East Asia, historically, the land with abundance teapots and tea....there are still plenty around, although getting rare nowadays. Drinking tea here used to be as common as drinking water in the past. Occasionally some old collectors look for worthy party to take over their tea and teapots. It is not about money and their collection are like their babies. Sometimes, I get lucky in this situation. It is a unique and enjoyable sub-culture.

Teaism wrote:Those production pots of 70s-90s found in these areas are still affordable at a few hundred dollars. It is much better than paying a hundred or two for questionable clay of the new pots. They are getting rare, it is late, but still not too late to find them. I just found and bought 2 dozens of 1 st and 2nd factory 70/80s pots yesterday. They are still in the original box.

Hello my friend, I am definitely not in that league. Collectors are always poor, don't you know. We live from paycheck to paycheck to feed our desire....the worst is every time we are short of funds, the best stuff surface. We always moan in guilt from buying remorse to buying remorse.